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. 2020 Feb 11;20(1):214.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-8322-8.

Socioeconomic - related inequalities in overweight and obesity: findings from the PERSIAN cohort study

Farid Najafi  1   2 , Shahin Soltani  3   4 , Behzad Karami Matin  1   2 , Ali Kazemi Karyani  1   2 , Satar Rezaei  1 , Moslem Soofi  2 , Yahya Salimi  2 , Mehdi Moradinazar  1 , Mohammad Hajizadeh  5 , Loghman Barzegar  1 , Yahya Pasdar  1 , Behrooz Hamzeh  1 , Ali Akbar Haghdoost  6 , Reza Malekzadeh  7 , Hossein Poustchi  7 , Sareh Eghtesad  7 , Azim Nejatizadeh  8 , Mahmood Moosazadeh  9 , Mohammad Javad Zare Sakhvidi  10 , Farahnaz Joukar  11 , Seyed Mohammad Hashemi-Shahri  12 , Alireza Vakilian  13 , Ramin Niknam  14 , Elnaz Faramarzi  15 , Ghodrat Akhavan Akbari  16 , Fershteh Ghorat  17 , Arsalan Khaledifar  18 , Davoud Vahabzadeh  19 , Reza Homayounfar  20 , Ali Reza Safarpour  14 , Sayed Vahid Hosseini  21 , Reza Rezvani  22 , Seyyed Ahmad Hosseini  23
Affiliations

Socioeconomic - related inequalities in overweight and obesity: findings from the PERSIAN cohort study

Farid Najafi et al. BMC Public Health. .

Erratum in

  • Correction: Socioeconomic gradient in physical activity: findings from the PERSIAN cohort study.
    Najafi F, Soltani S, Matin BK, Karyani AK, Rezaei S, Soofi M, Salimi Y, Moradinazar M, Hajizadeh M, Barzegar L, Pasdar Y, Hamzeh B, Haghdoost AA, Malekzadeh R, Poustchi H, Eghtesad S, Nejatizadeh A, Moosazadeh M, Sakhvidi MJZ, Joukar F, Hashemi-Shahri SM, Vakilian A, Niknam R, Faramarzi E, Akbari GA, Ghorat F, Khaledifar A, Vahabzadeh D, Homayounfar R, Safarpour AR, Hosseini SV, Rezvani R, Hosseini SA. Najafi F, et al. BMC Public Health. 2022 Oct 19;22(1):1944. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-14060-5. BMC Public Health. 2022. PMID: 36261809 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

Abstract

Background: Overweight and obesity are major health concerns worldwide, with adverse health consequences during the life span. This study measured socioeconomic inequality in overweight and obesity among Iranian adults.

Methods: Data were extracted from 129,257 Iranian adults (aged 35 years and older) participated in the Prospective Epidemiologic Research Studies in IrAN (PERSIAN) in 14 provinces of Iran in 2014. Socioeconomic-related inequality in overweight and obesity was estimated using the Concentration Index (Cn). The Cn further decomposed to find factors explaining the variability within the Socioeconomic related inequality in overweight and obesity.

Results: Of the total number of participants, 1.98, 26.82, 40.76 and 30.43% had underweight, normal weight, overweight and obesity respectively. The age-and sex standardized prevalence of obesity was higher in females than males (39.85% vs 18.79%). People with high socioeconomic status (SES) had a 39 and 15% higher chance of being overweight and obese than low SES people, respectively. The positive value of Cn suggested a higher concentration of overweight (0.081, 95% confidence interval [CI]; 0.074-0.087) and obesity (0.027, 95% CI; 0.021-0.034) among groups with high SES. There was a wide variation in socioeconomic-related inequality in overweight and obesity rate across 14 provinces. The decomposition results suggested that SES factor itself explained 66.77 and 89.07% of the observed socioeconomic inequalities in overweight and obesity among Iranian adults respectively. Following SES, province of residence, physical activity, using hookah and smoking were the major contributors to the concentration of overweight and obesity among the rich.

Conclusions: Overall, we found that overweight and obesity is concentrated among high SES people in the study population. . Accordingly, it seems that intersectional actions should be taken to control and prevent overweight and obesity among higher socioeconomic groups.

Keywords: Concentration index; Inequality; Iran; PERSIAN; Socioeconomic Factors; overweight and obesity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Determinants of obesity (developed by Malik and Hu (2017))
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
the age-and sex-standardized prevalence of underweight, normal weight, overweight and obesity among the study provinces (Razavi Khorasan(RK), Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari(CB), Yazd(YA), East Azarbaijan(EA), Ardabil(AR), West Azarbaijan(WA), Kerman(KE), Guilan(GU), Hormozgan(HO), Fars(FA), Kermanshah(KSH), Sistan and Baluchestan(SB), Mazandaran(MA), Khouzestan(KH))(developed by the authors using ArcGIS Desktop version 10.7)
Figure 3
Figure 3
the concentration index for overweight and obesity among the study provinces (Razavi Khorasan(RK), Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari(CB), Yazd(YA), East Azarbaijan(EA), Ardabil(AR), West Azarbaijan(WA), Kerman(KE), Guilan(GU), Hormozgan(HO), Fars(FA), Kermanshah(KSH), Sistan and Baluchestan(SB), Mazandaran(MA), Khouzestan(KH)) (developed by the authors using ArcGIS Desktop version 10.7)
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